Tyler St. Mark is a multitalented writer and producer who has experienced a myriad of careers during his seven decades on this planet. He has been an actor, a model, a lifeguard officer, a swim coach, a paramedic, a pianist, a publicist, a media relations specialist, and a producer. In recent years, he has received acclaim and a following for his short fiction. He has collaborated on six successful screenplays, published five short stories, and was nominated three years in a row for the West Coast Magazine Award for Best Short Fiction. Several of his literary works have been optioned for production, and he is now working on his first novel.

Tyler was born in 1954 and spent his childhood in Tucson, Arizona. Occasionally, he and his family would come to Santa Monica to visit his grandparents who resided at the Oceana, where they were friends with another couple who lived a few apartments away: the Laurels. During the late 1960s, Tyler and his chubby best friend, Andy Anderson, became perhaps the youngest professional Laurel & Hardy impersonation act ever; performing across Southern California in their own traveling “road show”, attracting both local and national media attention.

After graduating from high school, Tyler headed to Los Angeles to pursue a professional acting career, and his particular fascination with the elderly comedy legend led to the creation of a one-man stage show titled An Evening With Mr. Laurel in which then 21-year-old Tyler, buried under many layers of latex makeup created by Don Post Studios, portrayed an elderly Stan Laurel reflecting back on his life and career; the first time any actor had ever portrayed the man behind the comic. The production premiered at the Westwood Playhouse (now the Geffen Playhouse) in Los Angeles on September 8, 1975, and marked the beginning of Tyler’s in-depth research and extensive memorabilia collection with its focus on Stan’s twilight years; both of which he now brings to this book.

Tyler has been involved with the entertainment industry in one way or another for most of his life. He was an accomplished performer in his teens, appearing in theatre productions across Southern California and winning several regional acting awards. He attended UCLA in Los Angeles and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Tyler debuted professionally in Butterflies Are Free at the Show Place Theatre in Los Angeles and appeared in several films and movies for television before leaving show business to pursue his many other careers over the next four decades.

These days, however, Tyler is content to focus his attention and many talents back within the entertainment industry where he first started out; now consulting on troubled independent films and documentaries. In this way, Tyler finds himself somewhat the “prodigal son returned to Hollywood”; older, wiser, but with no less the zeal and passion he has brought to all of his extraordinary endeavors.